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The World's Best Dividend Portfolio

In June 2011, I invested my money equally in a selection of 10 high-yield dividend stocks. With a year of success behind me, in July 2012, I added even more money to the portfolio. Those names offer triple the yield of the average S&P 500 stock. You can read all the details here. Now let's check out the results so far.

The portfolio is up 11%, down 0.3 percentage points from last week. The S&P, however, went up, and so we moved down relatively, from 1.5 percentage points back to 2.5. Now that the government has worked out the dividend tax issue, let's hope that dividend stocks can return to their former glory. Since the election, the S&P has had all the fun, but I'd like to be ahead.

The portfolio is now yielding 5.8% -- about three times the S&P -- and we have nearly $70 in cash in the account and about $110 more on the way within two weeks.

What's going to happen to the dividend of National Grid, one of the largest in the portfolio? The company already offers around a 6% yield, but U.K. regulators may not be so generous when the company signs its next set of contracts, which will run from this April 1 to March 31, 2021. And that could determine what type of dividend increases investors could see in future years. Fellow Fool Roland Head says to expect something less heady than the 8% that investors have gotten used to recently -- maybe something around half of that. You can read the rest of his analysis here.

Plum Creek agreed to a deal that sees the timber company acquire a 25-year royalty interest in crushed stone quarries in South Carolina. The deal seems a bit unusual, but let's see where it goes. I continue to like Plum Creek for its exposure to the rebounding U.S. housing market, and shares could see a substantial increase in coming years if housing normalizes.

Speaking of somewhat unusual tie-ups, Frontier announced this week that it's offering natural gas and electricity in Ohio through FTR Energy Services. In addition, FTR will offer 100% green energy to consumers where available. Fellow Fool Dan Caplinger looked at Frontier's leadership, namely CEO Maggie Wilderotter, and found one area particularly lacking -- her alignment with shareholders. You can read his full analysis here.

Perhaps my favorite stock in the portfolio, Seaspan has signed an agreement to purchase five new 14,000 20-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) ships, which are scheduled for delivery in 2015. The company has already signed 10-year fixed-rate charters on the vessels with Yang Ming Marine Transport. Seaspan will pay for the ships with proceeds from its recent preferred stock offerings and future debt issuance. That's all good for holders of the common stock, since it should allow for increasing dividends over time.

Fool analyst Matt Koppenheffer isn't too sanguine on the prospects for Annaly in 2013. In this video, he tells you to watch out this year for the consistently declining interest rate spread, which is being helped along by the Federal Reserve's purchase of securities. As I've mentioned before, I'm interested in selling Annaly at the right price, but it helps protect the portfolio as a whole against a marketwide fall.

Dividends and earnings announcementsHere's the recent news on earnings and dividends:

Dividend news:

Vodafone went ex-dividend on Nov. 20 and pays out $0.519 per share on Feb. 6.

National Grid went ex-dividend on Nov. 28 and paid out nearly $1.15 per share on Jan. 16.

Philip Morris went ex-dividend on Dec. 24 and paid out $0.85 per share on Jan. 11.

Annaly went ex-dividend on Dec. 26 and pays out $0.45 per share on Jan. 29.

AT&T went ex-dividend on Jan. 8 and pays out $0.45 per share on Feb. 1.

All that, of course, means more money coming into our pockets.

It's fun to sit back and get paid, and with the market volatility, we might have a good chance to reinvest those dividends at good prices. Europe continues to be an absolute mess, and continued bad news will probably have stocks plunging again. If they do, I'll be inclined to pick more shares up.

Foolish bottom lineI've been a fan of big dividends for a while, and I think this portfolio will outperform the market over time through the power of dividends. As I promised in the original article, I'll continue to track and report on the portfolio's progress, including news on these companies.

Jim Royal, Ph.D., owns shares of the 13 portfolio stocks mentioned in the table and Seaspan May 2013 calls and is short May 2013 puts. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Exelon, National Grid, Retail Opportunity Investments, Seaspan, Southern, and Vodafone Group and owns shares of Annaly Capital Management, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Retail Opportunity Investments, and Seaspan. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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